Bright Ideas and True Confessions: How and What to Do
and Why

Seneschals

How to Register a Complaint in the S.C.A.

Step I

First, summon unto yourself all the tact and courtesy you possess.
Write to the person with whom you are unhappy. Keep a copy for your
file. Give the person sufficient time to respond. (Do not attempt
to turn the general populace against the person while you're waiting.)
If the person doesn't respond satisfactorily, go to Step II.

Step II

Write to the person a second time. Make two copies. Send one to the
person's immediate superior officer and keep one for yourself. (If the
person is not an officer, you might send the copy to the local seneschal
or marshal, perhaps, depending on the nature of the complaint.) Wait
a while - at least two weeks. This nearly always will do the trick.
If not, proceed to Step III.

Step III

Write a third letter. This time address it to the person's superior
officer. Send a copy to the person in question. If you feel the situation
is serious enough, send a copy to the baron, prince or king, depending
on the level at which the problem is occuring. (Don't send copies to
more than one unless there's a very good reason to do so, and your being
unhappy isn't a good enough reason.)

What Not To Do

Don't write a letter in anger and send out a dozen copies (or even
five or six copies). That's mud-slinging and quite improper for gentles.

Don't go over people's heads. Don't write directly to the king about
a local problem which should be handled by local officers or the baron
or baroness. Don't go directly to the king about a problem which should
be handled by one of the kingdom-level officers.

Do not go to the Board unless all other channels have been exhausted
(see Corpora). This means that if you have at least gone through the steps
listed here and your problems still cannot be resolved without outside
help, you might send a copy of your next letter to a corporate officer
(whichever officer is most likely to be able to help). When you deal with
a corporate officer, send copies to those in the kingdom who've received
copies of your previous letters.

If a letter (or copy) to the corporate officer brings no results, then
you can feel that you've exhausted all channels and you can write to the
board. Copies of that letter to the board should go to all those who've
received correspondence so far, including the corporate officer to whom
you appealed.

The summary is:

FOLLOW CHANNELS

BE RESPECTFUL

DON'T BE SNEAKY

The preceding complaint procedure has been published several times, with
slight customization for situations. This is the expanded version for
those in principalities. If you don't live in a principality, read "king"
for "prince." Although other similar kinds of procedures have been recommended
for use in various kingdoms, they are often longer, more complicated,
and pull more people into the conflict than are necessary. This was originally
published in May 1980, and was very similar to the one here.

I purposely left out a verbal first-phase for two reasons. I figure if
you are able to talk directly with the person you don't have a problem
yet. It was originally written with long-distance complaints in mind as
well, such as a local seneschal being frustrated with a superior officer
in another state. In such a case it's not efficient to wait several months
until seeing the officer in person to discuss it, and so a procedure which
"requires" that a verbal confrontation take place before any letters can
be written is forgetting that many people in the SCA deal with one another
at a distance.

Telephone calls are very useful tools, but can be hurtful, too. When
a person's quirks, personal problems, tone of voice, facial expressions,
etc. are not known to you, a phone call can be a confusing and misleading
exchange. When you talk to someone you know well, you're filling in the
holes in the messages with what you know of his motives, mannerisms and
personality. When you're talking with someone you don't know, misinterpretations
are impossible to avoid.

You won't be able to apply this complaints procedure to every situation
which might come up, but when you can it should be helpful in containing
the unhappiness in a limited area, and keeping the general populace from
knowing anything is wrong.

By the time unhappiness reaches the point that a formal complaint is
to be issued, it really, honestly, truly does need to be in writing. I
have never heard or read a better complaint procedure than this one.

Going Through Channels

Most people understand what "go through channels" means, but there have
been instances of local seneschals writing to the Steward without even
sending a copy to the kingdom or principality seneschal. This is definitely
going out of channels.

Take for example a kingdom seneschal. The direct lines of communication
are to the king and the steward (direct superiors in the reporting and
responsibility scheme), the other kingdom-level officers (fellow officers),
seneschals of other kingdoms, and the principality (or local) seneschals
(direct subordinates). if a kingdom seneschal wants quick information
from a shire within a principality, he should send a copy of the request
to the principality seneschal. Similarly, if the local officer needs immediate
information from a kingdom or corporate office, he should send a copy
of the request to the officer(s) he skipped over for expedience. If the
kingdom seneshal needs to contact a local herald, a copy should be sent
to his superiors; if writing to a prince and princess, a copy to their
seneschal. [This doesn't include award recommendations and such.] Going
behind backs, over heads and otherwise out of channels is discourteous,
disrespectful, and unwise.